Revisiting Lynd: Knowledge for What? A Colloquy on How Research Matters (or Not) in Shaping Local Homelessness Policy
In the late 1930s, Robert Lynd (of Middletown fame) made an impassioned plea for an engaged professoriat. Not everyone was thrilled. But his insistence that (some) research be self-consciously structured with practical applications in mind (sometimes re-defining what the problem was) rings true today – especially with respect to homelessness. This provocation (less presentation than invitation to a discussion) reviews two decades’ (and counting) worth of research on homelessness in the U.S., with particular attention to New York City, and asks: 1. What has made a difference? Of what sort(s)? 2. When difference was made – did research take the lead, or play a more documentary/evaluative role? (Where did the question come from?) and 3. What would the palette of research-that-needs–to-done look like today? (Note to purists: expect few p values, an orphaned “finding” or two, free rein to speculation and a healthy medieval skepticism of unwarranted precision.) Come prepared – as Lynd would have insisted – to engage.
Kim Hopper is a medical anthropologist who works as a Research Scientist at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, where he co-directs the Center for the Study of Issues in Public Mental Health. He is also Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, and lecturer at the Law School. Since 1979, he has done ethnographic and historical research on psychiatric care and on homelessness, chiefly in New York City. His current research interests include the reconfiguration of public mental health (the so-called "de facto" system), cross-cultural long-term follow-up studies of psychotic disorder, modalities of coercion, moral economies of care, working clergy and mental health, and applying Sen's capabilities approach to recovery from severe psychiatric disorder. Dr. Hopper has also been concerned with technical issues of field research - including interview results that are simply "too good to be true," difficulties in mixed-methods team research, and ethical quandaries arising in field settings (e.g., informed consent), especially when research is undertaken under contract. He has been active in homeless advocacy efforts (locally and nationally) for some time. A co-founder of both the New York Coalition for the Homeless and the National Coalition for the Homeless, he served as President of the latter organization from 1991-1993. As an anthropologist, he is especially interested in cultural struggles to define the terms and debate the merits of rights and reciprocities as they take shape in policy and practice in mental health and social welfare.
